I have to design my own monogram. Great, this is my first design assignment since the start of the courses. Only this is going to be a rather interesting challenge. My initials are no others than the notorious SS.

Despite being very strong graphic shapes with a kind of universal qualities —is it a snake or a river— you realize that it’s quite difficult not to associate them with fascism or more surprisingly with the dollar sign. Being the two same letters there is an element of repetition and relation to one another. Both S’s are of equal importance. A positive aspect is that it could be relatively easy to generate a pattern out of the monogram.

No letter is intrinsically aggressive or passive. It’s what has been associated with those letters that make them feel uncomfortable or reassuring.
If my name was Isaac Quin the sound of my initials might make me smarter than I really am. Pat Matthews might suggest that I am a very influent person. Tom Viner would open up a door that releases a torrent of emotions from exaltation to boredom. Esther Thomson would send us back to our childhood and to those years when america seemed inoffensive. I can imagine the look of bewilderment on someone’s face if my name was Karl Kenneth-King.